Squadron Leader: squadron builder & web applications from HiveLabs

By Nevetz, in X-Wing

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Hey there Pilots!

My name is Nevetz and I've been working since almost a year on Armada Warlords, a fleet builder and web helper for Star Wars: Armada. Armada Warlords has grown (and it is still growing!) as one of the main fleet builders in the Armada community mostly thanks to its awesome community who always followed my little project with interest. Today I'm here on the X-Wing forums to announce that (and I think here some people will finally say "it's about time!") I am going to work on an X-Wing version of my Armada application. Since I started working on Armada Walords prototype, I've got many requests on working to a similar X-Wing application and, as many in the Armada community know, I always said "no".

So why thing change of course all of a sudden? Well, basically I have more time for my projects at this time, and with my current skills I am able to work on 2 projects at once which share the same (or similiar) features. Long story short, when this X-Wing version of my application will be online, I should be able to work on updates for both Armada and X-Wing applications at the same time (or by chaning very little depending on the apps differences).

So, here we go: I am currently working on Squadron Leader (Link), an X-Wing squadron builder, with social features that will allow both unregistered and registered users to share their ideas, squadrons, and more. Of course, I know that there are already awesome squadrons builders around, and by no mean I intend to replace them. Let's say I just want to propose an alternative.

If you followed my work on Armada, I'm sure you know how well aware I am of users feedback and I'm always willing to add new features based mostly on user requests. Would you like to see something in the app that is currently unavailable? Just write me, and I'll be sure to have a chat with you. Armada Warlords has been growing up basically on this method, I must say I'm always impressed by the amount of positive feedback I get from new and senior players.

Right now I have nothing online to show you, but of couse, if you are interested, you can check out directly Armada Warlords. Many features I'll add to it will be cloned into Squadron Leader too, so look out for new updates from time to time. I can already say I'll work on Squadron Leader obsessively on mobile features which will make it really easy to create and share lists on phones and tablets (as well as obviously on dekstops), which with time will be ported to Armada Warlords too. This way I'll be able to keep up with the updates on both applications.

Of course, I'd like to gather already any feature you'd like to see on Squadron Leader, so I can start to gather something to work on as soon as the whole thing goes online. It may need some time because I'll have to setup the databases (especially for pilots and upgrades), so the application won't be ready in a blink, but of course the main structure will be Armada Warlords which is running totally fine.

Thank you for reading,

Nevetz

Edited by Nevetz

Hi, welcome into the game ! If you create a X-wing builder, make sure to handle the xws format.

Hi, welcome into the game ! If you create a X-wing builder, make sure to handle the xws format.

Hey there fab! Thanks, but I'm into X-Wing since Wave 2 :P

Anyway I'll be sure to check out the format you'vementioned.

My comment was related to the squad builder "game"... ;-)

I've put online the first pages of the application. You can view it here: Squadron Leader

I've set up the main structure and imported Core Set pilots as the first test for the database pages. You can view i.e. Luke Skywalker. It is very basic now but I'm planning to expand the page with more utilities.

Once I'll finish to import pilots and upgrades, I'll be able to start to import the Builder, which will come in 2 versions: an image-based one, similar to Armada Warlords, and a text-icon only version, more suitable for mobile devices and image-less experiences.

Let me know what you think!

Nevetz

Edited by Nevetz

I looked at your Armada builder (despite having never played it!) and I really like the image-based building. I have a handful of friends who are quite new to X-Wing, and I think having the card graphics available to use when squad building could be very helpful for them.

That said, something I'd be interested in seeing but don't know how feasible it is (probably very feasible to begin but very difficult to maintain) would be in the pilot database some section on "meta usage". E.g., with Luke Skywalker, it'd show XX% of players who have run Luke put R2-D2 on him vs XX% for the next most common, etc.

ListJuggler would be the best source for these statistics, but again it might be a lot more work than it'd be worth in the first place.

I looked at your Armada builder (despite having never played it!) and I really like the image-based building. I have a handful of friends who are quite new to X-Wing, and I think having the card graphics available to use when squad building could be very helpful for them.

That said, something I'd be interested in seeing but don't know how feasible it is (probably very feasible to begin but very difficult to maintain) would be in the pilot database some section on "meta usage". E.g., with Luke Skywalker, it'd show XX% of players who have run Luke put R2-D2 on him vs XX% for the next most common, etc.

ListJuggler would be the best source for these statistics, but again it might be a lot more work than it'd be worth in the first place.

Statistics aren't quite hard to implement, in fact I am already working on those for Armada Warlords using the Warlords list data (also the graphs plugins to render the data are really classy and neat). This said, depending on how many people will use the builder, I should be able to implement statistics too for Squadron Leader or use external sources.